Corazonin signaling integrates energy homeostasis and lunar phase to regulate aspects of growth and sexual maturation in Platynereis.

ABSTRACT: The molecular mechanisms by which animals integrate external stimuli with internal energy balance to regulate major developmental and reproductive events still remain enigmatic. We investigated this aspect in the marine bristleworm, Platynereis dumerilii, a species where sexual maturation is tightly regulated by both metabolic state and lunar cycle. Our specific focus was on ligands and receptors of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) superfamily. Members of this superfamily are key in triggering sexual maturation in vertebrates but also regulate reproductive processes and energy homeostasis in invertebrates. Here we show that 3 of the 4 gnrh-like (gnrhl) preprohormone genes are expressed in specific and distinct neuronal clusters in the Platynereis brain.

SUBMITTER: Andreatta G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6969523 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature